Mistaken Identity
by DSISandraPullman39
Summary: A possible case of mistaken identity takes Sandra and Gerry on a road trip to the highlands.
1. Chapter 1

**Mistaken Identity 1/4 **

**Disclaimer:-** Don't own them just borrowing!

**Episode:- **None

**Pairing:- **Sandra/Gerry

**Rating:- **M

**Achieve:- . /group/new_tricksff/**

**Summary:- **A possible case of mistaken identity takes Sandra and Gerry on a road trip to the highlands.

**Author's Note:- **Seasonal word challenge with 1 chapter per season and different words for each chapter words for chapter 1 are – Spring, sofa, cinema room, Yellow, Dress, 22, Tapir, Mama Mia, Of mice and men, Phone, Pen, Hair Brush, Pancake, Deodorant, Pineapple. Thanks Bethy xxx

"Jesus we're in the wrong line of work we really are!" Gerry sighed looking around the room as Sandra glanced at the floor plan in her hand.

"Ok so according to the sister they had spent the evening in here watching rom coms, it was something they did once a month when the vic's husband went up north to check on their business interests up there." She began flicking through the file in her hand,

"What does the husband do again?" Brian asked flicking through the DVD's on the shelf beside the 60inch plasma screen in the plushly decorated **cinema room** that was just one of the excessively luxurious rooms in the central London three story Victorian house they were in.

"Oh you've heard of him." Jack replied contempt dripping from his words. "Pierce Mc Mathew the aerosol millionaire, killing the ozone layer for 50 years with hair sprays, **deodorants**, and spray cans in general. Now he's a patron of the arts apparently."

"Well with this sort of set up in your basement who wouldn't be a patron of the arts. With a screen that size I'd patronise the arts 24/7." Gerry agreed as Sandra rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah I remember now!" Brian replied enthusiastically. "Didn't he pay for that "alternative" theatre group that put on Macbeth in the nude?"

"Yes he did." Sandra interrupted before the conversation could completely descend into a playground situation as it so often did when they got talking about things that had no relevance to the case they were working. "This time though he was sponsoring a fully clothes performance of "**Of mice and men"** with an all dwarf cast at the barbican in Manchester so he wasn't in London at the time of his wife's death and the sister left her after their movie night and went straight home. Her neighbour has confirmed that she saw her arrive home around midnight then she heard what sounded like a one sided argument like the sister as on the phone that went on for over an hour she complained that she was trying to get to sleep and all she could hear was muffled shouting through the wall. That puts the sister at home and the husband 200 miles away when she was killed."

"What movie did they watch?"

"What does that matter? Jesus Brian would it matter if they were watching Titanic or Bridget jones we can be pretty sure that neither Leonardo D'Caprio nor Colin Firth came out of the screen and killed Janet Mc Mathew." Sandra snapped shaking her head and about to continue when he interrupted her again.

"Of course it matters it's details Sandra the more details we have the better I'm trying to build a mental picture of that night to….."

"It was **Mama Mia** apparently now can you make your mental picture in silence so the rest of us can get one with some real work?"

"So the husband is away and he has an alibi, the sister is in the clear too and yet there's no sign of forced entry." Jack sighed as Gerry sat on one of the matching recliners in the corner of the room. "So she must have let her attacker in, she trusted them otherwise he'd never have got past the door at that time of night. Is there a chance there was a lover involved? Did the husband say if it was normal for them to receive visitors at that time of night?"

"No the affair line was discounted by all accounts and from every interview with friends, family even acquaintances that the original Di did they appeared to be loves young dream, sickeningly happy was used on more than one statement. As for late night visitors the husband says no the only way he can think of there being anyone she let in that night was if she called a friend to come stay with her apparently she didn't like being alone in the house at night when he was away." Sandra explained as Gerry took new photos of the area.

"Did she make any calls? I assume that was checked." He said putting the camera back in his pocket and staring at her waiting for an answer.

"No outgoing or incoming calls that evening on the land line. She had a mobile but the **phone** was never found."

"She had a mobile in '95? God I thought only city tossers and the uber rich had them back then." Jack replied shaking his head, everything about this case screamed that a family member did it, no defence marks on the victim, no forced entry, a house full of seriously high end goods none of which were taken and the fact she was stabbed **22** times and her face was caved in, serious overkill that implied the fury from the killer had to be personal.

"Yeah well they were uber rich he still is and the 2.5 million life insurance policy he got on top of the fact he was already loaded means that we're looking at serious politics with this one so we need to tread carefully or Strickland will be all over us about pissing off the higher ups." Sandra replied as they all agreed the room had nothing more to tell them and walked through the lavish house and back out on to the street, She was sure there was a family element to this but unlike what she knew the guys were thinking she believed they hadn't yet found the connection behind it. All three of them had fought against going over this case it had been lying in the middle of the moth ball pile for years and since nothing new had come in she'd decided it was time to blow the dust off it and some of the others and do a little **spring** cleaning. Strickland was constantly on her case about how nothing ever seemed to move from that pile now next time he asked she could say they'd started on it and that should keep him quiet for a week or two.

"What I don't get is why it took three days before anyone noticed she'd dropped off the radar and someone went looking for her." Brian commented standing in front of the incident board staring at the photos and information he'd put up there as he chewed the end of the black whiteboard marker **pen** "I mean we know Mc Mathew wasn't due home till the day after she was found but what happened to the sister. She claims they were really close more like best friends than siblings. Well I know what Esther and her sister are like they talk to each other at least once a day every day. I wonder what the hell they find to talk about but my point is if Esther was calling Ruth and it had been more than a day with her not answering or returning her calls she'd be worried. If it got to two days with nothing she'd be round there like a shot so what happened here?"

"That's what I've been wondering too." Jack agreed as Sandra sank into the corner of the **sofa** her fingers gently brushing Gerry's as he smiled. "Not only that but why wasn't Mc Mathew concerned? I know he wasn't due home until the day after she was discovered but why wasn't he trying to contact her? There wasn't a single message from him on the home answer phone and although the mobile was never recovered he admitted to the main enquiry that he hadn't tried to contact her. According to his witness statement he hadn't tried to check on her at all which strikes me as odd if they were so in love and as happy as everyone claims."

"I can't imagine being away for that long and not calling home regularly." Gerry agreed "Unless you knew there was no point I mean unless you knew no one as going to answer anyway."

"Something' not right here, I'm looking back over the family background and there's something that just doesn't gel. The sisters are close, they look so alike they could be wins there's only a year between them, they have no other family their parent are dead and there are no other siblings and no extended family to speak of." Sandra interrupted scanning the file in her hand again a fact that seemed to be so obvious jumping out at her for the first time.

"What are you thinking guvnor?" Brian asked as they all gave her their full attention.

"Well when we were doing the board you initially got the pictures of the sisters the wrong way round Brian what if we're looking at this the wrong way round and the original team were too? What if Janet Mc Mathew is alive and kicking and it was actually Jessica who was murdered?"

"But she was identified using DNA Sandra and Mc Mathew insisted on seeing her body in spite of the state it was in he identified the gold **tapir** pendent that he said he bought her when they were on honeymoon. You remember in the witness statement he said she loved the tapirs she'd seen on their trip to Brooklyn Zoo and he'd had the necklace made." Gerry replied shaking his head, it was an interesting theory but he couldn't see how it could be true.

"Wait Sandra might have a point." Jack interrupted staring at the board for a second before continuing. "The two sisters are alone and something happens that causes Janet to lose it with Jessica. A fight breaks out and Janet stabs Jessica maybe they weren't as close as we've been lead to believe or maybe something happened that caused her to snap."

"So she's stabbed her sister, it was pretty frenzied so it'll have been done in the heat of the moment." Brian picked up "She panics, maybe calls Mc Mathew and they decide maybe they can get away with it if we believe it's Janet now lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the floor. We know that while she was bleeding out the attacker rearranged her face with the heavy **pineapple** shaped ice bucket from the bar in the room. So now they have an unrecognisable female body."

"Yeah but the DNA came back as Janet Mc Mathew, it's not like the original team just took the husband's word for it that it was her they did a DNA test." Gerry replied still now ready to get on board with the idea that they could simply swap identities.

"The DNA was verified using a **hairbrush** and toothbrush." Sandra replied "Her DNA wasn't on file so when the body was discovered the housekeeper gave them the victim's tooth brush and hair brush from the bathroom but…."

"But what if in the meantime Janet had swapped the brushes belonging to Jessica for hers and hey presto the sisters identities are swapped." Gerry sighed finally seeing what they were seeing. "And since the murder Mc Mathew and "Jessica" have been living in the highlands supposedly separately but who's to know and by removing themselves from anywhere that might mean they bump into anyone who might ask awkward questions they cement the deception."

"Exactly!" Sandra smiled triumphantly "But that still doesn't tell us why Jessica or Janet or whoever was murdered and we have no way of proving any of this. Even if we could exhume the woman which we can't because she was cremated, the only DNA on file is from the sources supplied when she died which proves nothing."

"We need to get them in and talk to them." Jack agreed staring at Sandra as she laughed picking up a **yellow** highlighter from the desk before running it over two numbers on the sheet of paper before handing it to Jack.

"That's Ms Mathews home and mobile numbers why didn't you give him a call and suggest he pops in, let's see how far you get." She sighed going into her own office and picking up the phone on her desk as Jack did what she asked.

"Mr Mc Mathew will be unable to jump on his private jet and join us to help with enquiries because he and his sister-in-law are hosting a charity **pancake** ball on Tuesday evening in aid of the Scottish Cancer Trust since it's shrove Tuesday." He told her when she emerged again ten minutes later.

"Imagine my surprise, it's just as well I've just persuaded Strickland to sign off on a trip to the highlands. Gerry you're with me so get online and see if you can get us a couple of tickets to this charity ball we'll leave on Monday morning first thing. While we're gone Jack, Brian I want you to go back over all the witness statements, speak to the neighbour, and the Mc Mathew's house keeper basically anyone the original team spoke to and go back to that house and go through it for anything that might give us another DNA sample. In the meantime I'm going to take my party **dress** to the cleaners before they close for the weekend."


	2. Chapter 2

****For authors note, disclaimer etc see chapter 1**

**Mistaken Identity 2/4 **

(Seasonal word challenge words are – Summer, Flower, Hairband, Pencil case, CD, Skype, Notebook, Duvet, Earphones, Crisps, Jeans, Perfume, Card, Desk.)

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive for a while? Trust Strickland to ok a trip to the other end of the country but only if we drive! If he's let us fly we're have been there by now!" Gerry snapped looking up from the **notebook** in his hand were he'd been running over the evidence again as Sandra drove.

"No we'll switch over when we hit the boarder and stop for something to eat. Did Brian get back to you about the tickets for the ball and the hotel reservations?" She replied stopping at yet another set of traffic lights and glancing sideways at her travelling companion.

"Yeah we're in at the ball the tickets will be at the hotel reception for us and he booked us into a double too but don't panic he told Strickland it was because it was the only room they had left and we're not happy about it." Gerry continued winking at her as she smiled back at him. She'd told Brian for the sake of appearances to book two rooms but she'd known, resourceful as he was, he'd get them booked in together if at all possible. Within they own team her and Gerry's relationship was a fact that had been going on so long that it was considered normal but outside their home in the MET basement the rest of their colleagues, including their boss, had no idea.

"Trust Brian Strickland won't ask him for an explanation anyway because he'll be worried about getting some huge lengthy explanation about the relative room rates in the area and how he was saying the department money by "forcing" us to share a room rather than going to a different hotel. Did you tell him we'll **Skype** him in the morning for an update on what they've found before we go tomorrow night?" Sandra asked smiling as Gerry relaxed into the seat gently resting his hand over hers on the gear stick. Even though technically it was work she was looking forward to a couple of nights away with him. It was already past 4 and they'd been on the road negotiating cities and motorways for hours. By the time they hit the hotel it would be the small hours of the morning but they had tomorrow together since they wanted to be able to observe Mc Mathew at the ball without him knowing who they were or tipped their hand by interviewing him prior to it. That meant that until they had been to the ball they were just a couple on a short break who has a little work to do on the side.

"Yeah I told him he's like a kid with a new toy you know how he gets on his soap box about technology and policing." Gerry replied as she laughed her hair fluttering around her shoulders sending a waft of her **perfume** filled the car reminding him how much he was looking forward to a few days alone with her. "How do you think Mc Matthew is going to react to the fact we're looking into this again? The more I look at the files the more it seems like no one ever really put a lot of effort into getting someone for it. It was brushed off as an intruder even though there was no signs of a break in and nothing taken. Whoever was heading up the team seems to have just wanted it off their **desk**.

"Well we've come across that too many times in the last few years to be surprised Gerry. I don't know how he's going to react it'll be interesting to observe him and Jessica or Janet or whoever she turns out to be tomorrow night. Something in my gut is telling me we're right about this and Janet killed her sister and they've covered it up. The 2.5 mil insurance policy can't have hurt either, I wonder how Jack is getting on with the financial background check. Maybe Mc Matthew wasn't as comfortably off as everyone believed before the murder." Sandra sighed as they slowed at a service station just across the Scottish boarder.

"Do we have to eat here? Can't we look for somewhere a little more…well a little less…..somewhere not attached to a service station?" Gerry muttered looking around at the collection of fast food outlets and service station chain restaurants. "I know your idea of a good meal is a really spicy Indian but we're away from home let's see if we can find a good gastro-pub or something instead."

"Hey my food tastes have broadened and did I say we were eating here? It's only 5 I just want a snack we'll stop later for dinner somewhere nice, and you can drive now."

"Ok well you stretch your legs I'll go get some **crisps** or something." Gerry smiled pausing to watch as she got out of the car and stretched lazily. The way her jacket rode up as she did gave him a perfect vie of how her **jeans** hugged her ass reminding him just how perfect she was and making him even more eager for the driving part of their trip to be over. "You're gorgeous you realize that don't you?" He said pulling her into his arms and kissing her softly as they enjoyed the momentary diversion from the boredom of the road.

"You would say that you're biased." Sandra replied laughing as he shrugged and winked playfully at her as he walked away.

Leaning against the car Sandra looked around, normally she hated long drives, she'd decided long ago that if it was possible to fly that was the way to go and certainly driving the full length of the country under normal circumstances would have sent her running for the hills. Today though she was enjoying it, the weather was almost **summer** like in spite of the fact it was only April, the traffic hadn't treated them too badly and she was making the drive with her favourite person in the world.

"Right let's hit the road again put some music on and we'll stop when we get closer to Edinburgh there should be some nice placed to eat up there." Gerry smiled taking the car keys from her as she got into the passenger seat and flicked through the **cd's** in the glove box.

"Sorry honey where are we? I didn't mean to fall asleep." Sandra yawned an hour later when a bump in the road stirred her from the deep sleep she'd drifted into.

"It's fine you looked so beautiful I didn't have the heart to wake you we're twenty minutes outside Edinburgh the sat nav is telling us there's a little gastro-pub a mile and a half down this road they do B&B too so I called the hotel and told them we'd not be arriving until the morning and booked us in here for the night." Gerry replied laugh as he saw shock register on her face. "Relax tonight isn't going through the books we're actually saving the MET money. I thought it would be nicer to enjoy a nice meal tonight, with a bottle of wine then have an early night. We can leave first thing and we'll still be in Avimore by mid-morning that's loads of time to do a little quiet investigating and get ready for the ball tomorrow night."

"Gerry that's a lovely idea and Strickland can't complain if it helps the expenses bill." Sandra replied feeling her heart race a little as they pulled into the car park.

"Yes we'll book a table for 8 please." Gerry smiled as the receptionist behind the desk handed him the room key **card** and put their dinner reservation in the book in front of her.

"This place is amazing, chalk one up to the usefulness of the sat nav. Now how are we going to kill a couple of hours before dinner? Any ideas?" Sandra asked as he dropped their bags in the corner of the room and looked around. The room was a mass of classic Scottish elegance, rich reds and blues with a smattering of tartan on the **duvet** cover and the table cloth on the table in the corner holding a vase of **flowers** interspersed with heather and thistles.

"Well you should call the office and see where Jack and Brian have got to with the neighbour and housekeeper when I was talking to them earlier they said they were going to hang around until about seven to see if they could get in touch with the sister's ex apparently he was flying back from the states tonight. While you're doing that I'll run us a bath and we can unwind from the journey then I'm sure we can think of a way to build up an appetite." Gerry replied kissing her hungrily as she shrugged off her coat. Pulling her phone from her pocket and unhooking the **earphones** from the hands free kit she used while she was driving she hit the speed dial for the office as Gerry disappeared into the bathroom.

Right now she couldn't think of anything she wanted to do less than think about work and the case that had brought them here in the first place but she knew to be able to enjoy the rest of their evening guilt free she would have to at least have to make the effort to check in.

"Brian it's me we've stopped for the night just outside Edinburgh how are you two getting on?" She asked when Brian answered hitting loud speaker and moving around the room to grab a pan from the small leather **pencil case** she kept in the zip compartment of her handbag before grabbing Gerry's notebook and listening carefully.

"Jack spoke to the housekeeper this afternoon, she says she normally worked every day but she'd a message from Mrs Mc Matthew to say she didn't need to come Monday and Tuesday because she was planning on spending time with her sister and would probably stay over there. She said she remembers because it was unusual she never missed days whether the Mc Matthews were at home or not." Brian began as she heard Jack's in the background before his voice filled the room.

"The interesting thing is she claims to have had the call two hours after the coroners earliest time of death for Janet Mc Matthew and there's something else." He said the excitement obvious in his voice making her smile, for all his grumpiness she knew nothing made him as happy as getting evidence that made a case clearer. "When I asked her about finding the body she quite naturally got upset and when I asked if there was any way she could be sure that it was Janet she said there was no way to tell, the clothes were right, the body was in the Mc Matthews house and she had no reason to believe it wasn't her employer but she couldn't make anything out from the body itself because of the wounds to the face."

"Well we know all that." Gerry interrupted coming back into the room and sitting on the bed beside her gently running his fingers over her neck as she batted them away scowling playfully at him.

"We know that doesn't tell us anything but this does. I asked her about the hair brush and tooth brush she gave the SOCO's for identification and she said she got them from the en-suite bathroom but she had to search because when she found the hair brush at first she didn't recognise it. She says that Janet always kept everything together in a basket with **hairbands** and other hair stuff but when she went to the basket the brush was different from the one she was used to seeing there. She said Janet was very fussy about hair products and always used the same brand of brush for as long as she had worked there but this brush was different. She's dismissed it in the end and assumed that her employer had just bought a different one it wasn't until a couple of weeks later when she was clearing out Janet's stuff that she found the other brush it had been put in the bin but fallen down between the bin liner and the side of the bin itself."

"So Janet swaps the brushes and probably in a bit of a panic bins the one that's actually hers but doesn't notice that it's not made it into the bin liner. One move and hey presto Jessica becomes Janet and the Mc Matthew's up sticks and move to somewhere no one is going to ask any questions because no one knows them anyway. "Sandra smiled making notes as Gerry nodded his agreement. "Did she happen to say if she saw the supposed sister before the move?"

"That's the last thing I wanted to say, apparently the funeral was kept small, suspiciously small, she wasn't there and after it no one saw Jessica who before that practically live in the Whitechapel house. When they left for Scotland she was asked to keep an eye on the house, keep it clean and show round any potential tenants for a generous fee. The job and the money were conditional on her not disclosing to anyone where Mc Matthew had gone nor the fact that his "sister-in-law" had gone with him."

"Great work you two I'll call again tomorrow and see if you've spoken to the neighbour and the ex." Sandra replied as Gerry nodded pointing at the phone and making "wind it up" gestures. "For now go home there's nothing more you can do tonight the ex can wait till tomorrow I don't imagine he'll be in the mood to answer questions tonight anyway. I'll call you when we get to Avimore."

"Now we're getting somewhere" Gerry smiled as she hung the phone up and threw the notebook and pen onto the bedside table. "But as you just said there's nothing more we can do tonight so for now you're all mine."

"Yep I am." She laughed as he pushed her back onto the bed kissing her hungrily and pushing all thoughts of anything else out of her mind.


End file.
